Wes Gordon, a teacher from San Leandro, and his boy paleontologists were nationally recognized throughout the United States in the 1940's. A band of boys ranging in age from 7 to 13 unearthed one of the best preserved fossil sites in North America of its time. Large mammal fossils from the Irvington District created such a national event, that a section of time was honored as the Irvingtonian Stage (1.8-.3 million years ago). Mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, sloths, dire wolves, and sabertooth cats are the major representatives of this fauna.

This collection is located in the Children's Natural History Museum at 4074 Eggers Drive and managed by the Math Science Nucleus, a non profit organization, so children can enjoy and learn from the collection.

The Math Science Nucleus has taken on the responsibility so these fossils can be enjoyed for generations of San Francisco Bay area children. However, the Math Science Nucleus is finding it difficult to generate the funds to keep the fossils in its present 7,000 square foot home and to do programming. School budgets which take field trips to the location has decreased this year, and that can cause major problems in order to keep the fossils intact. The Math Science Nucleus, although a non profit, has not been able to get grants or major funds to support the exhibits.

On October 9, 2008, Thursday (6-8pm) we will have an organizational meeting for people interested in fossils to help us get ready for a fund raiser and reunion of some of the surviving Boy Paleontologist who are in the 70's and 80's. The reunion is scheduled for December 13, 2008 at the Children's Natural History Museum. This group will also help with other projects like helping to keep reopen the original dig site and helping with working on fossils that we are getting from loan from Madera County.

Robert Wieckowski, a Fremont City Councilmember, is helping by providing a matching grant fund from the Wieckowski Family which will match any donation up to $5,000 raised before the Dec 13th event.